If you are a webmaster, then you’ve probably submitted your website to several directories, you may even run one yourself. There are thousands and thousands of directories out there on the net and they all have their advantages and disadvantages. Good webmasters need to be able to evaluate these differences to assess what directories will be worth the time, effort and money to submit to.Traffic
While all webmasters would like more traffic, and often have the goal of obtaining more visitors from directory submissions, the truth of the matter is that most directories don’t bring in very many visitors. Even DMOZ, one of the largest and most popular directories on the web, brings in few surfers for many sites listed there. And other directories that spend several thousand dollars each month on advertising may only bring a few visitors.
Now don’t get me wrong, sites in popular directories listed in a good spot near the top of popular categories many indeed see a nice amount of visitors, but this is the exception rather than the rule. But even one visitor a month is better than none.
SEO
The top search engines build rankings to a lesser degree based from on-page factors, like how many times your keyword appears on your page, or if the keyword is used with bolding, italics, H1 or H2 tags, etc. To a larger degree, search engines rank pages based on what the rest of the web has to say about them. This means that links to your website count as positive votes, and the anchor text in these links helps categorize the content of your page. If the rest of the web says a webpage is about a “miserable failure”, search engines will take that strongly into consideration, regardless of what the webpage in question says it is about.
The main point being that directories provide webmasters with a way to vote for their own website by getting a new link. With respect to categorization, the downside with most directories is that instead of linking to your site with your keyphrase as the anchor text, they link to your site through the title which only provides some categorization depending on the title. Worse, directories sometime use the URL as the anchor text which provides no categorization benefit at all. But the absolute worst way that a directory can link out to your site is through a tracking-script URL which allows the directory software to count hits to your site, but provides no SEO benefit at all. The ideal case would be a directory that used a direct link with your selected keyphrase as the anchor text, but this is very rare.
One final SEO factor to consider, is the difference between floating text links and links that are naturally embedded within content. Search engines understand that natural in-content links may provide more accurate anchor text, and that floating links are often used with links purchased for SEO benefit. If you can get your anchor text link from within surrounding content text, that is the ideal case.
Saturation
Another factor to look at is the saturation of a directory. This simply means how full is the directory, or targeted subcategory, with other websites. If you take Google PageRank into consideration the idea of a link as a vote, as discussed above, becomes more complex. Really each page has a certain varying amount of voting power (PageRank), and this voting power is divided between all the links on the page. In practice, this means that if a link to your site is the only one on the page, it will get the most benefit as it gets the full voting power possible from the page. This is rarely the case, as there are usually multiple directory entries which all share the PageRank. If the directory has grown to 100s of links per category it has reached the saturation point and the benefit of being listed is diminished. So, the best time to get into a good new directory is at the beginning!
Free vs. Paid
Some directories are free, some require a reciprocal link and some require a onetime payment or a recurring payment. Yahoo’s directory, for example, requires a recurring annual payment of $299. DMOZ is free, but many sites wait for years to be listed. One of the advantages of paid directories, is that the fact that they are not free, slows down the submissions, which in turn slows down the saturation of the directory. This factor can make a purchased directory entry a very worthwhile investment, these directories are often of higher quality as well, which makes them a better resource for users, which can make them a better source of traffic than junky free directories.
One thing to note here, is that you definately want to avoid FFA link pages. Free-for-all link pages are typically uncategorized lists of links that often require no administrative review for submission, this results in a spammy, uncategorized, saturated list of links that you really don’t want to be associated with. So, in summary, take avantage of the quality free directories, but don’t write off the paid directories if you are seeking to gain high quality backlinks.
Introducing SEOMA
Now that you are aware of some considerations for selecting directories to submit to, I’d like to introduce you to a new directory you may be interested in. SEOMA was designed from the ground-up to maximize the SEO benefit for listed sites. While most directories ask for just your URL, Title and Description, SEOMA also requests your desired anchor text. This anchor text is used exclusively to link out to your site, maximizing the benefit of the new backlink. And another optimized feature of SEOMA, is that if your anchor text appears within your description, it will automatically be hyperlinked on the custom detail page which is provided in addition to the standard directory listing. Your link will be the only outbound link on this page. So, you get a custom anchor text link from an on-topic category page, plus another custom anchor text link from a dedicated detail page for at least two outbound links per site.
Visit SEOMA
Mark is the creator of many popular websites including Money Talk and SEOMA.
Written by SEO Tipster on September 25th, 2007 with no comments.
Read more articles on SEO Articles.
If you are a webmaster, then you’ve probably submitted your website to several directories, you may even run one yourself. There are thousands and thousands of directories out there on the net and they all have their advantages and disadvantages. Good webmasters need to be able to evaluate these differences to assess what directories will be worth the time, effort and money to submit to.Traffic
While all webmasters would like more traffic, and often have the goal of obtaining more visitors from directory submissions, the truth of the matter is that most directories don’t bring in very many visitors. Even DMOZ, one of the largest and most popular directories on the web, brings in few surfers for many sites listed there. And other directories that spend several thousand dollars each month on advertising may only bring a few visitors.
Now don’t get me wrong, sites in popular directories listed in a good spot near the top of popular categories many indeed see a nice amount of visitors, but this is the exception rather than the rule. But even one visitor a month is better than none.
SEO
The top search engines build rankings to a lesser degree based from on-page factors, like how many times your keyword appears on your page, or if the keyword is used with bolding, italics, H1 or H2 tags, etc. To a larger degree, search engines rank pages based on what the rest of the web has to say about them. This means that links to your website count as positive votes, and the anchor text in these links helps categorize the content of your page. If the rest of the web says a webpage is about a “miserable failure”, search engines will take that strongly into consideration, regardless of what the webpage in question says it is about.
The main point being that directories provide webmasters with a way to vote for their own website by getting a new link. With respect to categorization, the downside with most directories is that instead of linking to your site with your keyphrase as the anchor text, they link to your site through the title which only provides some categorization depending on the title. Worse, directories sometime use the URL as the anchor text which provides no categorization benefit at all. But the absolute worst way that a directory can link out to your site is through a tracking-script URL which allows the directory software to count hits to your site, but provides no SEO benefit at all. The ideal case would be a directory that used a direct link with your selected keyphrase as the anchor text, but this is very rare.
One final SEO factor to consider, is the difference between floating text links and links that are naturally embedded within content. Search engines understand that natural in-content links may provide more accurate anchor text, and that floating links are often used with links purchased for SEO benefit. If you can get your anchor text link from within surrounding content text, that is the ideal case.
Saturation
Another factor to look at is the saturation of a directory. This simply means how full is the directory, or targeted subcategory, with other websites. If you take Google PageRank into consideration the idea of a link as a vote, as discussed above, becomes more complex. Really each page has a certain varying amount of voting power (PageRank), and this voting power is divided between all the links on the page. In practice, this means that if a link to your site is the only one on the page, it will get the most benefit as it gets the full voting power possible from the page. This is rarely the case, as there are usually multiple directory entries which all share the PageRank. If the directory has grown to 100s of links per category it has reached the saturation point and the benefit of being listed is diminished. So, the best time to get into a good new directory is at the beginning!
Free vs. Paid
Some directories are free, some require a reciprocal link and some require a onetime payment or a recurring payment. Yahoo’s directory, for example, requires a recurring annual payment of $299. DMOZ is free, but many sites wait for years to be listed. One of the advantages of paid directories, is that the fact that they are not free, slows down the submissions, which in turn slows down the saturation of the directory. This factor can make a purchased directory entry a very worthwhile investment, these directories are often of higher quality as well, which makes them a better resource for users, which can make them a better source of traffic than junky free directories.
One thing to note here, is that you definately want to avoid FFA link pages. Free-for-all link pages are typically uncategorized lists of links that often require no administrative review for submission, this results in a spammy, uncategorized, saturated list of links that you really don’t want to be associated with. So, in summary, take avantage of the quality free directories, but don’t write off the paid directories if you are seeking to gain high quality backlinks.
Introducing SEOMA
Now that you are aware of some considerations for selecting directories to submit to, I’d like to introduce you to a new directory you may be interested in. SEOMA was designed from the ground-up to maximize the SEO benefit for listed sites. While most directories ask for just your URL, Title and Description, SEOMA also requests your desired anchor text. This anchor text is used exclusively to link out to your site, maximizing the benefit of the new backlink. And another optimized feature of SEOMA, is that if your anchor text appears within your description, it will automatically be hyperlinked on the custom detail page which is provided in addition to the standard directory listing. Your link will be the only outbound link on this page. So, you get a custom anchor text link from an on-topic category page, plus another custom anchor text link from a dedicated detail page for at least two outbound links per site.
Visit SEOMA
Mark is the creator of many popular websites including Money Talk and SEOMA.
Written by SEO Tipster on September 25th, 2007 with no comments.
Read more articles on SEO Articles.
Is your website listed on search engines? When people search for you, does your site show up on page 1 or page 20 of the search engine results?
Optimizing your site to get it ranked highly on the search engines can be a complicated subject. To simplify things, it’s helpful to first understand how search engines add sites to their database. Then we’ll cover some tips that you can put on your own website that will help you to get listed on search engines and get a higher ranking.
The Major Players
Let’s start off with the major search engines, the ones that most people use. Google is the most widely used search engine with Yahoo and MSN searches following close behind. While there are thousands of search engines, it’s always a good idea to start with submitting your website to the three largest. Why? Because 95% of all searches go through either Google, Yahoo or MSN.
Who Is Powered by Whom?
Many search engines do not have their own database, but rely instead upon data supplied by someone else. This is important to know so that you can submit your site to the most popular search engine databases first. For example, AOL Search and Yahoo Search get data from Google, while MSN and HotBot get some data from Inktomi.
How Search Engines Read Your Site
There are two ways search engines read your site: automated (crawlers) and human-entered (directories). Crawlers follow the links found on your site and enter your site into their search database based on text they find on your pages. This text is either found on your public pages, or the text keywords found in behind-the-scenes “meta tags”. The amount of your keywords found on your page, the more weight it has with the search engines and the higher your ranking. But in case you think you can load your page with keywords in order to fool the search engine, think again. Search engines are smart and you can be penalized for “spamming” keywords on your website. Major crawlers include Google, AltaVista and Inktomi.
Human Directories are few and far between. Just imagine hiring enough people to research the millions of website on the Internet! It’s no wonder they’re steadily being replaced by automated crawlers. Yahoo is one of the most famous human directories, where real people actually evaluate your site and categorize it in their database directory. More and more these search engines are relying on partial automation for categorizing and listing new sites in the search engine database. In addition, getting your listing in a Directory for free can take months. Some human directories are charging a fee for business sites to be included in their directory.
How Search Engines Index and Rank Your Site
Search engines use several techniques to determine which category your site belongs in and what keywords or key phrases people will use to find your site when using the search engine.
When submitting your site to search engines, they will ask you four things: the title of your site, a short description of your site, your keywords or key phrases (what words or phrases people typically use to search for sites like yours) and what category your site belongs in. Then they will often crawl your site, checking to see if the keywords/key phrases you supplied match the text on your website. And remember, you will be penalized for spamming your keywords and rank LOWER because of it. Also it’s important to note that search engines can not read the text in graphics, so if you are using a graphic-based navigation or have your keywords on a graphic next to your logo, the search engine will not notice it.
Some search engines will rank your site based on your title, description and keywords that are supplied behind-the-scenes in special coding called “meta tags.” While not every search engine will read meta tags, it certainly can’t hurt to use them. Again, there are rules: your Title meta tag can’t be more than 100 characters, your Description meta tag can’t be more than 250 characters, and your Keyword meta tag can’t be more than 1,000 characters. And anti-spamming of keywords applies to meta tags as well ? no more than six instances of the same word in your Keyword meta tag or you’ll be penalized by the search engine. For example, if my key phrases include “business coach,” “starting a business,” and “small business coach,” that counts as two uses of the word “coach” and three uses of the word “business”.
Submitting Your Site to Search Engines
Once your site is primed and ready for the search engines, then you have to submit it to them. You have two choices: either go to each search engine and submit your site individually, or use a search engine submission tool. Remember that the majority of searchers use either Google, Yahoo or MSN, so consider submitting to those first. You’ll often find a link on their main page where you can add a site to their search engine. If you want to automate the process, use an automated submission tool. Make sure the submission search tool you select will analyze your site to tell you if you’re really ready to submit, then submit your site to the top search engines for you.
Preparing your site for submission to search engines can feel like a daunting task. With these tips in mind, you’ll save yourself a lot of time and frustration when it comes time to submitting your site and rank higher in search results.
See you on the Internet!
About The Author
Karyn Greenstreet is a Small Business Coach and Self Employment Expert with 23 years of self-employment and computer industry experience. She shares tips, techniques and strategies with self-employed people to create and grow their businesses, stay focused and motivated, and perform at their peak. Visit her website at www.PassionForBusiness.com
Written by SEO Tipster on September 24th, 2007 with no comments.
Read more articles on SEO Articles.